or
(v)(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or
(II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished as provided in subparagraph (B).
The ‘conspiracy to commit’ clause might trip up DeSantis even if all of the people they transported to the Vineyard were in the country legally, because DeSantis’ spokesperson said they weren’t.
If that’s what DeSantis believed, or was in reckless disregard of whether they were here legally or not (and given the way they gathered these people off the streets of San Antonio, that seems quite likely), then he was involved in a conspiracy to violate subsection (ii) whether or not he was successful in violating that law.
However, most recent cases of fentanyl-related overdose are linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is distributed through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous.
Over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
The same gangs that smuggle migrants, also smuggle drugs.
The people transported to Martha’s Vineyard by DeSantis were, mostly, from Venezuela. They were not in Florida at all. DeSantis hired private jets to pick up migrants in Texas to fly to Massachusetts. The migrants did cross into Texas from the Mexico side of the border but they aren’t from Mexico, they just passed through it. How did they get from Venezuela to Mexico? A lot of them walked. The whole way. On foot. Maybe getting an occasional ride, but most of them on foot.
Personally, I think people with such determination and grit are likely to made a good addition to our working population if we don’t alienate them.
It is highly unlikely that an airport would turn away any legal flight and the flights involved were entirely legal. As are the migrants, I might add - they are all asylum seekers granted permission to stay in the US while their applications are processed.
For asylum seekers (which apparently what these people are, for the most part) yes, absolutely there is a normal process. They are permitted to remain in the US while their claims are being heard, and travel freely within it. Most don’t want to hang around the border in Texas, hence why a lot of them are accepting the free ride elsewhere (which might not take them where they are told it would take them). I’m assuming the GOPers are using this group of migrants to give themselves the fig leaf of “oh, they’re not illegal aliens” if that ever becomes an issue.
You actually want to air that in Mexico for maximum effect. Might take some pressure of California and result in fewer deaths in the Arizona desert on top of it. Meanwhile, we can thank Abbott and DeSantis for facilitating resettling all those people.
Also ignores the number of people who, for example, fly to Chicago via O’Hare and overstay their visas. Who are just as illegal as anyone swimming the Rio Grand. Of course there’s a higher proportion of properly White people doing the visa over-stay so maybe that’s OK with the GOP. Except they weren’t at all happy about properly White people from Ukraine trying to come to the US by way of landing in Mexico first - maybe it’s because those Ukrainians aren’t buddies of autocrats like Putin? I don’t know. Trump states he wants more Europeans to immigrate but even when they try to do so the GOP isn’t happy. Or maybe they really did want Swedish immigrants and not Slavic ones.
Anyhow who thinks Chicago doesn’t have immigration, both legal and illegal, has never actually been to Chicago.
Eh, if these so called Christians tore out everything from the bible that they don’t follow, they’d be left with a couple of Jack Chick pamphlets.
Make no mistake, this action was made out of a place of hatred. They wanted to hurt people. They wanted to hurt immigrants, they wanted to hurt their fellow countrymen, they wanted to hurt the country. Anyone who defends this is also coming entirely from a place of hatred and a desire to harm others.
The fact that it “backfired” and no one was harmed by their hateful actions only serves to make them hate all that much more.
I fully expect next step is for them to load up immigrants into the back of semi trailers, and deliver a bunch of dead and dying people to “sanctuary cities” as their next form of gotcha.
Your cite doesn’t say that fentanyl is smuggled in from Mexico or South America. It says it’s illicitly manufactured.
In any case, people who want to increase legal immigration and help asylum seekers are not the one driving the illegal human traffickers.
ETA: Thanks for a cite that actually addresses your claim. Now, please help me connect the dot from drug smuggling to asylum seekers. To save you time, I agree that drug smuggling is bad.
As I mentioned in a prior post, ALL of these people transported by DeSantis and Abbott actually are legally allowed to be in the US and travel within it. I assume this was deliberate to protect them from the very accusations and prosecution you mention.
Again - none of those people are illegal. They are all people who are formally identified as asylum seekers and legally allowed to stay in the US and travel within it.
One more time - all of these migrants are legally permitted to stay in the US and move around within it. They are all recognized asylum seekers with paperwork, court dates, and case numbers. Offering to give them a ride is not illegal.
I really believe these people were singled out deliberately to protect those involved from human trafficking accusations. It’s not a matter of scooping them up right at the border. That’s also why there’s the fig leaf of these people boarding the buses/planes voluntarily, and not stopping them from wandering away if the bus stops for gas or whatever. It protects the governors and their cronies from prosecution.
It seems to me that if you want to stop drug smuggling, then you would want people to be able to come in through normal channels. Forcing them underground means that there is more underground traffic, which can help drug smugglers.
If all these people who want to come to the US could show up at a port of entry and be admitted, then the drug smugglers would need to find a new form of cover for their activities.
But the point isn’t about the drug smuggling, it’s about the hatred and cruelty, so even though their policies actually help the drug smugglers, the harm that is inflicted upon immigrants makes it worth it to them.
Here is the United States policy on placing refugees. Of note, communities seem to have no say in whether or not refugees are placed there. Also of note, there are Resettlement Agencies to assist the refugees. Has that system broken down? Is it fair for the Feds to tell states/cities that they will have to take refugees over their objections?
Are you advocating that these asylum seekers be granted refugee status?
If so, great, I actually agree. If not, then what you just posted, and the question you asked, are completely irrelevant to the situation discussed here.
In the past, GOP policies weren’t specifically designed to harm the underprivileged and underrepresented; that was just a result of their desire to benifit the rich and powerful. Now, it seems, policies are specifically designed just to hurt people.
Is it legal to offer to give someone a ride to one place, but then actually take them to another? A different state, even?
I don’t know the answer to this, maybe it’s not, and it’s just a horrible thing to do based in the hatred and cruelty that has come to define the modern Republican party.
It’s a cynical stunt, of course. That being said, there is a certain logic to it. By analogy, imagine if pro-life states were bragging about how much they’d take care of pregnant teens or other women who didn’t want their babies. You could hardly blame blue states for shipping hundreds of such babies or women to the doors of “crisis pregnancy centers” in Texas or things like that.
“You pro-lifers talked the talk, now prove it by walking the walk.”